Club 80-90 Forums

Evening all I have removed the eberspacher heater from my van today it is a B5W petrol heater and hasn't worked in the 10 years I have owned the van all the wiring seems intact and I cant help feeling I should get it repaired.
I have plugged it in and it makes a whirring noise for 10 seconds and then drops to a lower pitch whirr then stops. It does not pump water or try to fire.
Now i wanted to ask if any one has had a old heater repaired? is it worth it?
would it be better to replace? or upgrade to a new unit?
I thought I would throw it out on here as it might help me out thanks for looking
The brickyard boys siad i should consult Oldie but goodie?
cheers Dan

I don't work on the water heaters but - have you set up a test light as per the troubleshooting manual? It is a lot easier to work from the codes rather than stabbing blindly at possibilities. This should tell you at what point of the startup sequence it is failing, as there are numerous possible failure points it is pretty essential to start with this.

Hi mr goodie.
Thats a shame.
Nevertheless i do not have a operators manual or any related paperwork for the unit unfortunately.
Where would the be the best place to acquire a trouble shooting manual?
I have been fiddling tonight and have found that the pump is not getting a live or priming the unit.
I have checked the pump and manually primed the system in a hope that the system would fire and continue to run
however no such luck the system start up procedure seems to work normally and it does two cycles before turning its
self off.
I have no wiring diagram but the green and black wire seems to run back to the relay no 46? and the solid green seems to
go the the bottom of the main control relay not really sure where to go next unless i take the van complete to a service agent
in Taunton ?
any advice will be very appreciated
thanks Dan

pm me your email address and I'll send you the manuals.

Just as a thought make sure that the leisure battery is well charged and properly earthed to the frame ! Mine did similar to yours prior putting in a decent earth !

Good luck !

thanks for the manuals oldie,
After some further investigation the water pump is totally seized the housing is split and the screws are well non existent.
Therefore as it has been removed from my van I will ponder upon it for a while at least until after "Busfest" it might be
getting a little colder by then!
cheers Dan

Quite frankly the heater will be around 20 years old (presumably it was a factory fitted one) - a brand new pump will be around £200 (just found new one at £90 on ebay ) and that is before you find anything else that has gone. Scouting around for secondhand parts may take a while. Time to weigh up replacing with a more modern unit with getting a b5w/d5w secondhand from ebay at around £100 and transferring parts (steep learning curve! ) or replacing with a modern air heater.
Do you specifically require a water heater?
Petrol air heaters are a rare beast compared to the diesel ones though. (My 3.2Kw petrol Webasto is provisionally sold which could have been a replacement - I don't get them in very often though, around one a year!)

I have been thinking along the same lines but have found this eBay item number:261983254091
and have passed several emails with the chap who seems fine but as much as I
would like to keep the van original I also don't want to waste money hence my hesitancy .
Therefore a little further investigation is required.

That looks reasonable, bench tested and seems a genuine guy - I have had several bits from Germany recently as it has been getting cheaper.